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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Rent | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:703#1552] |
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As commented, A Little Snow Fairy Sugar offers up a surprising amount of depth for a series geared for kids. The series puts focus between Saga's interactions with the Season Fairies, Saga learning to move on from the loss of her mother and Sugar's goal of becoming a full-fledged Snow Fairy. Many of the characters introduced get a good amount of focus in terms of understanding their backgrounds and/or personalities and there is plenty of cuteness to be found in this series compliments of Sugar and the other apprentice Season Fairies. The most prominent focus in the series though is on the chemistry between Saga and Sugar as the series explores the bond between the two which starts off on rough ground and slowly becomes close throughout the course of the series. I do have to admit that the heavy cuteness of this series took quite a bit of getting used to for me considering I haven't been a major fan of the recent moe craze coming from titles like Lucky Star and Clannad (TV). But once I looked past this, I could admire the solid amount of depth that Snow Fairy Sugar provided its characters. Visuals for the series are clearly on the simple side with the sketch-like art style used in creating backgrounds and scenery and details on character designs looked simple as well. Animation is just as minimal having instances of character movement in close camera shots and having still shots and reused animated frames on a number of occasions throughout the show's run. Overall, A Little Snow Fairy Sugar was a solid watch throughout its run thanks to its surprising depth on characters, though its cuteness certainly was a big hurdle for me to get past. This is certainly a worthwhile and appropriate title for children to watch, as well as any regular anime fan who can look past the "sugary-sweet" cuteness of some of the characters. I give this title a strong Rent recommendation. Last updated Sunday, October 07 2012. Created Sunday, October 07 2012. | ||||||||
| Buy | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 7 |
 HolyAjora
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[series:703#1245] |
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"Sugar" is a rather heartwarming anime series. Probably one of the best I've seen. In term of animation, art and character design the show is amazing. Nice bright animation, cute designs and a fairy tale like feel. And considering the theme of the story the animation style they chose is perfect for it. The cast is also rather good. Several characters with strong personalities. Many of which develop rather well without relying on the cheap development trap of just suddenly changing their views for no reason. The story itself is very good and many episodes provide a good chance for development and depth. However it's not flawless. For one thing many episodes can feel a bit drawn out. And sometimes the fights make you wonder if anything is actually happening for real. Still despite that flaw the series comes off rather well and is one of the best shows to watch if you feel the need for a cute style children's anime. Last updated Tuesday, March 02 2004. Created Tuesday, March 02 2004. | ||||||||
| Buy | 9 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 |
 AstroNerdBoy
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[series:703#436] |
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This series is "sugary sweet" and as such is appropriately named "Sugar". That said, it isn't all sweetness. There's some surprising depth as well, not only to the various characters, but also in the overall story as well. The series has what I would call three parts. Part one covers Saga having to adjust to her new life where the apprentice snow fairy Sugar has moved in with her. In addition to Sugar, there are Sugar's best friends, the fairy's Salt and Pepper and other apprentice and adult fairies. The second part of the series deals with Saga's acceptance of the fairies and her deepening friendship with Sugar. In the final phase, we have Saga dealing with the death of her mother once again as well as the reality that Sugar-tachi will have to leave once their training is done. Each part is done well, and in the final third of the series, there are a lot of tear-jerker episodes. The series fluxuates between episodic and serial. While there is the overall story-arc of Sugar-tachi having to find "twinkles" to make their magic flowers bloom, the series doesn't get very serial until the theatrical-troop arc which covers several episodes. Then, I would consider the final several episodes to be serial in nature as well. From a story perspective, I was a bit disappointed in the ultimate ending. I can't say more than that for fear of spoiling the series, but I guess the writers wanted to do something slightly different. Character growth is a big thing in this series. Salt, the boy sun fairy, may get the most character growth followed closely by Greta, Saga's self-appointed rich rival. She reminded me a lot of an "evil" Tomoyo-chan from CCS. Saga and Sugar also get a lot of character growth which makes the ending so bitter-sweet. Musically speaking, it is very good. I love the open theme, but since these weather faries play instruments, it gives us a chance to hear many different instruments played. I think I would have prefered a bit more variety when it came to music. For example, every time Ginger (the rain fairy) wanted to make it rain, she played the same tune on her violin. While each fairy had a different tune, they all played that same tune when activating their magic. However, this is a minor thing. I do have a word on Pioneer translations. Apparently, we the audience are pretty stupid, so even English needs to be translated into English. For example, Phil would often throw a switch and say, "Switch on!" in English (in the Japanese version). However, Pioneer/Geneon felt this needed to be translated to various things depending on the situation. *sigh* I guess someone flicking a switch and saying "Switch on!" might confuse people. Bottom line: this is something the whole family can enjoy. It has a good story, good characters, good humor, and some tears as well.Last updated Wednesday, May 19 2004. Created Sunday, December 07 2003. | ||||||||
